‘Last Exit’ – TG’s answer to the Sex Pistols ‘God Save the Queen’. Opens with a sampled American commentary on nuclear survival and a conversation over a two-way radio.

“Fuck off / Fuck off cunt… / And then he hit me with a brick… / Right under the poster / And I fell in the mud / I said ‘Don’t kill me’ / Then he hit me with a brick / Then he hit me with a brick again / Then the blood went out of my cheeks / Then the blood hit the ground and it mingled with the mud / The blood and the mud mingling under the poster / And I looked up at the poster / I looked up and saw the poster / It was a picture of Prince Philip / Prince Philip was fucking the Queen / Prince Philip was fucking the Queen / And the Queen was going ‘Again, do it again, Philip, please Philip, fuck me Philip’… / Got on the Central Line / Came up to these two kids / And the two kids kicked me in the teeth / I spat out three teeth / And I looked up / And I looked up at the poster… / And I looked at Prince Philip / And he was kicking me in the teeth / And the Queen was saying ‘Fuck me again Philip’… / And he said ‘Don’t hit me with that brick. Don’t suck my prick / Poster / Fuck off / Fuck off.”

The voice used on Slug Bait is that of a young Canadian killer, who was serving life for murdering a young girl whilst he was still only a teenager.

“The final track is thee voice of thee DJ yelling at thee AUDIENCE, part of whom had attached thee PA and other audience members to try and stop TG playing anymore. A minor riot. Thee DJ liked TG and is abusing thee drunks. After a couple of minutes he put an Iggy Pop record on to try and pacify everyone.” [Genesis P-Orridge, Nanavesh 3, February 1982]

Track One (47’23”)

00’00” Zyklon B Zombie07’38” Last Exit16’17” Slug Bait23’10” Maggot Life32’09” Mary Jane/Record Contract “Just like the Bay City Rollers, The Rolling Stones and Johnny Rotten, all our songs sound the same”41’47” ‘Tesco Disco’ “If my amplifier was loud enough, I’d make sure it killed everyone in the room including me”42’31” One Note One Life One Purpose “I just want to fuck you all up the bum – anything to wake you up”

Track Two (12’36”)

00’00” One Note One Life One Purpose (cont.)”Oh fuck I’ve gone out of tune”04’30” ‘A Load of Fucking Wankers’09’12” (Recording ends)

===========================================

IRCD37SO36 Club, Berlin, Germany, 8th November 1980.Stereo.

“A short high frequency ‘buzz like’ sound can sometimes be heard during these performances. This sound is present on the original tapes and was most likely caused by [the] presence of a nearby digital PCM machine during the recordings.” “There were technical problems during the taping of this performance which resulted in a shorter than usual 48 minute recording.” [Chris Carter, TG+ notes, August 2003]

Track titles from Funeral in Berlin. Some instrumentals on IRCD36/37 may have one of the following titles: Stained by Dead Horses / Zero’s Death / Nomon / Raudive Bunker Experiment / Denial of Death / Funeral in Berlin / Trade Deficit. Any help on this appreciated.

“I make no apology for saying I am a lover of heavy, noisy, jarring ear-splitting music, I’m young and strong, and I can take it. But I had a job to keep my pint in my stomach as I listened to the muck which was Throbbing Gristle’s claim to fame… Our photographer gave up early. I wish I’d followed him. But I waited, and watched dumbfounded as Cosey Fanni Tutti bared both her chest and her ignorance of music, and Genesis poured artificial blood over his head then spat it onto the stage. At least he did stop playing for a while – but only to shout obscenities at the audience and to throw a table across the hall. Then he invited half a dozen youngsters from the cat-calling and jeering audience onto the stage and handed them the instruments. They sounded better then Throbbing Gristle, even though they couldn’t play a note. The landlord, Mick Fitzgibbon, told me that the youngsters were about ready to throw Genesis P-Orridge, plus his equipment, bodily through the door. ‘I’ll never have them back here,’ he said. ‘The kids were threatening to punch the promoter and I don’t blame them.'” [Keith Baldock, Bucks Free Press, Midweek Issue]

“After thirty minutes all the faults of the hasty equipment erection, mingled with the frustrations of the band, came to a head. Cosey’s lead guitar ceased to exist. The fault could not be located quickly and rectified… Cosey took the only course open to her; she strolled off stage and sat in the audience… The position on stage was becoming impossible. Chris walked off and headed for the toilet. Gen was left alone on stage, still plucking at his dominant throbbing bass guitar, adding vocals whilst Sleazy… was having trouble off-stage slotting in tapes and loops. The set-up was crumbling… Some of the audience, particularly around the bar, were becoming restless. Gen met the challenge. Still pounding his bass, stretching the lead, he climbed into the audience and jeered, insulted and provoked the audience, collectively and individually, concentrating on the restless members, beckoning one of them to accompany him onto the stage. Once there Gen transferred the bass to him and left the ‘musician’ pounding away in his turn, before himself jumping back into the audience, running amok, overturning a table and its beer mugs, insulting and provoking others to take the stage.” [Paul Buck, eyewitness]

Track One (60’00”)

00’00” Introduction02’29” Very Friendly21’36” We Hate You24’00” Instrumental “You’ll notice for the next hour I play one string.”31’51” Slug Bait36’54” Instrumental “You can’t have anarchy and play music, it’s not the same thing.”39’33” Zyklon B Zombie47’32” ‘If I was a Little Baby’ with members of the audience48’24” Wall of Sound “What’s it about?” “Not an awful lot.”53’23” (Performance ends) “That sounds better!”59’58” (Recording ends)

These are actually, arguably, the first Throbbing Gristle shows. I say arguably because it is my understanding that they weren’t even using the TG name on the first one. Could be wrong on that. Here’s some info from Chris Flatline’s great site:

TG’s debut appearance. Performance art series 6th-9th July at the Air Gallery 125-129 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, curated by Genesis P- Orridge. TG performed in one room while the audience listened from the next.

00’00” Instrumental38’23” (Recording ends)

Track Two – Hat Fair (21’31”)

At the Attic Theatre, Broadway for the Winchester Hat Fair. Audience of 170.

I’m not going to lie, it sounds like it was recorded from the next room over. Borderline unlistenable. You have to resituate your expectations to sit through it. Basically interesting as historical document alone.

First disc of Throbbing Gristle’s massive live document TG24, I’ll see how far I get posting these disc by disc. I’ll alternate between TG24 and the supplemental box set TG+, which has their last “classic era” shows on it. That’s in case too many shows from the same era become monotonous.

TG live has always struck me as hard on the ears, even for TG. But we’ll see how it goes. Here’s some info about this particular show, from which a version of “Slug Bait” was pulled for SECOND ANNUAL REPORT: